Paleolithic Murals and the Global Wildlife Trade

摘要

"Antiquities are history defaced," argued Renaissance philosopher FrancisBacon in The Advancement of Learning; they are "…remnants of his-tory which…escaped the shipwreck of time" (1). These remnants, battered bythe elements and scattered around the globe, are all we have to piece togetherhuman heritage. In recent years, radiocarbon dating techniques (e.g., accelera-tor mass spectrometry) have allowed us to date samples of pigment from cavepaintings and not rely solely on evidence from surrounding artifacts. Thesetechniques shed light on the chronology and evolution of prehistoric art andshow that cave painting began much earlier than believed, as early as the UpperPaleolithic period (2).The Paleolithic period (Old Stone Age), the earliest stretch of human his-tory 2 million years ago, saw the development of the human species. Nomadichunters and gatherers, who lived in caves and crafted tools out of stone, pro-gressed during the last ice age to communal hunting, constructed shelters,and belief systems. The Upper Paleolithic (end of Old Stone Age) markshumanity's cognitive and cultural, as well as artistic, beginnings (3)